


Ignorant Bliss

by SingingInTheRaiin



Category: The Magnus Archives (Podcast)
Genre: F/F, Gen, M/M, POV Outsider, but there are some things that definitely would, covers the first four seasons, not everything that happens would affect the other employees
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-06
Updated: 2019-12-06
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:00:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,997
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21688747
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SingingInTheRaiin/pseuds/SingingInTheRaiin
Summary: The story of Jon's time as Head Archivist, from the perspective of a random Institute employee who definitely does not get paid enough for this.
Relationships: Martin Blackwood/Jonathan Sims
Comments: 16
Kudos: 257





	Ignorant Bliss

When Ana had told her parents she’d gotten a job working at the Magnus Institute, they’d both insisted that that wasn’t a real job. That she was going to regret getting herself involved with a bunch of crazy people who believed in ghost stories and probably all had taken too much acid and hallucinated.

But it was very well paying for an entry job, and Ana had always enjoyed research, so she couldn’t see any harm in it. So she took the job, and found that she actually rather liked it.

Over the years, Ana slowly earned raises, and fell into such a habit of working at the Institute that she couldn’t even imagine leaving to work somewhere else. Maybe she hadn’t had this place in mind to be a career when she’d started, but that’s what it had somehow turned into. 

At one point, she’d even been offered a promotion to work down in the archives, which was a pretty big deal. Most of Ana’s coworkers seemed to think of the archives as the ultimate goal of where they wanted to end up. Admittedly, Ms Robinson did seem pretty cool, but in the end, Ana turned down the offer. She said that it was because she was already so used to where she was, but truthfully, it was because she knew how bad the wi-fi in the basement could get from the few times she’d been down there.

And of course in hindsight, she would have been better off never working for the Magnus Institute at all, but as it was, she was beyond grateful that she had turned down the transfer to the archives. At least it meant that her life had been extended just a little bit longer, though she was pretty sure that she was going to die soon. The barricade that she and her coworkers had set up was only going to hold out for so long, and then those two insane killers were going to get inside and slaughter them like they had everyone else. If only Ana had paid better attention to the signs.  
,,,

It all started about three years ago, with a fire alarm. The only unusual thing about that was that they’d had their biannual fire drill just a month earlier, which meant that it was possibly an actual fire. Of course Ana had gathered up a few folders of important documents that couldn’t be lost to a fire while she shouted for her friends to go on ahead of her. Then she’d hustled to the nearest exit, only to stop short at the sight of what seemed to be hundreds of slimy looking worms all over the floor. 

Ana refused to get burned alive because of a few gross bugs, though, so she took a deep breath and ran towards the exit, trying her best to ignore the way the worms sounded as they were crushed beneath her shoes. 

It was hours later before anyone was allowed back into the building, and by then the news had already quickly spread around. The Head Archivist and one of his assistants had been hurt by the worms, but more importantly, the body of Gertrude Robinson had been discovered, and she’d apparently been murdered. 

As everyone shuffled back to their desks so that they could grab their bags and head home early, since they’d all been given the rest of the week off, Ana couldn’t help zoning out a bit as the gossip was passed around. She was too busy thinking about the fact that even though she’d worked in the Magnus Institute doing a job that involved researching weird or supernatural things, she’d never actually believed any of it before.

But she’d seen those worms for herself, and she’d caught a glimpse of the Mr. Sims’ face before the bandages had been put on, and Ana found herself reluctantly rethinking her whole world view. For a moment, she considered quitting and finding somewhere safer to work. But Ana had already sunk so much of her life into the Institute that she didn’t think she’d be able to handle starting over anywhere else.

Besides, by the time everyone returned to work on Monday, the worms had been cleaned out and the damage in the basement had been repaired, and it was easy to believe that the whole thing had just been a one-time deal.   
,,,

The whispers going around the room seemed ridiculously loud as everyone waited to find out why a sudden staff meeting had been called. Nobody expected for Elias Bouchard himself to step out in front of them. He was the head of the entire Institute, which meant that whatever he needed to say was surely something important.

He cleared his throat softly before he began. “I know that rumors have a tendency to take over rather quickly, so I am here today to give you all of the facts so that there will be no need for the rumor mill to go to work. Yesterday, an unidentified body was found in the office of Jonathan Sims, and no one has seen or heard from him since. The police are in the process of questioning anyone who might know his whereabouts. I would ask that before you leave this room, all of you sign an NDA to verify that you will not be discussing this matter with anyone outside of the Institute.” He gave a long, deliberate pause before adding, “I am confident that Mr. Sims is not a murderer, but if any of you see or hear from him, please contact me immediately. That is all.” Mr. Bouchard never directly said that Sims was a wanted man, but that was what everyone was easily able to extract from what little information they had been given, and the chatter grew to full volume almost instantly. The Head Archivist was a murderer?   
,,,

Ana headed down to the basement holding the latest batch of statements that had been processed and were ready to be filed away properly. Normally that was Chris’ job, but he was out sick, so Ana’s supervisor had asked her to fill in. Ana wasn’t looking forward to spending much time down in the archives, but she could see how stressed her supervisor was, and had agreed.

As she headed to the file room, she passed by the assistant’s desks. Two men were flipping through files, and Ana vaguely remembered them from back when they’d worked in research. There was also two women who Ana had never seen in the Institute before- wait! Her hair was a bit different, but that was Melanie King, wasn’t it? Ana’s wife had been obsessed with that YouTube show, and had moped about it for ages when it had been cancelled. 

For a moment, Ana thought about asking the woman for an autograph, but then she decided that that would just be embarrassing if it turned out to be someone else. So Ana just moved on towards the file room, but she paused when she spotted Mr. Sims standing in his office. She let out a small gasp before she could stop herself, and then immediately ducked behind a corner before he could spot her. Murderer or not, he was still a wanted man, wasn’t he?

Ana dropped the file box she’d been carrying, and hurried back upstairs as quickly as she could. She already knew that Mr. Bouchard never saw anyone without an appointment, but she assumed that he would make an exception in this case. She knocked frantically on his office door, and opened it as soon as he called out for her to come in. 

He seemed perfectly calm as he finished writing something down, and then finally looked up at her. “Ah, Mrs. Peiru, what can I do for you?”

For a man who had so many tragedies happen in his Institute, he seemed to be in quite a pleasant mood. Ana wasn’t sure why, but that made her take a slight step back, closer to the still open door. “Uh, last week you said that if any of us see Mr. Sims, we should tell you. Well I just saw him down in the archives!”

Mr. Bouchard gave Ana a long look, and she got the crazy feeling that he could see right into her soul, even though she’d never believed in such things. “Is that so? I’m sure that you must be mistaken.” He didn’t offer any further explanation, just said that as if it made perfect sense to him that he was right and Ana was wrong. She almost wanted to argue, and insist that she wasn’t just seeing things, but she knew that in the end it was pointless, so she just let out a small sigh. Mr. Bouchard nodded politely. “Now is there anything else? Or should you be returning to your own tasks?”

Ana wasn’t sure why she felt so terrified of the idea of looking him in the eyes, but she was. So she just nodded and hurried away without another word. She didn’t even apologize for her sudden intrusion, and Mr. Bouchard didn’t seem as though he expected her to. 

Ana returned to her normal floor, and hurried over to one of the other researchers. She begged them to do the filing in the archives, and after promising to fill out one of their annoying forms, they agreed and headed to the elevator. Ana couldn’t quite explain the massive relief she felt about not having to go back down to the basement.  
,,,

Normally Chris went down to file away statements once or twice a week, but it occurred to Ana that she hadn’t seen him go down in over a month. “So what’s up with that?”

Chris just shrugged. “I don’t know. I mean, statements are still being sent up here to be processed, but I was told in no uncertain terms that no one other than the archival team is allowed in the basement at the moment. From the big man himself.”

Ana frowned. “Aren’t you curious about what’s going on down there?”

Chris shrugged again. “It’s not really our job to worry about it.”

Ana’s frown only grew as she headed back to her own cubicle. She wasn’t going to risk her job just to get a peek down into the basement, but she couldn’t help feeling a knot of anxiousness build up in her stomach as she thought about what could be going on.  
,,,

Elias Bouchard was arrested for the murders of Gertrude Robinson and the random old man. Mr. Sims was in the clear but he was also in a hospital in a coma, and still no one was allowed down into the archives. 

Ana’s mom called when she saw the news. “You were working for a murderer?”

“It’s not as though he was my direct boss, mum. And anyways, how was I supposed to know?” Though she suddenly thought of the way he’d said that he didn’t believe Mr. Sims to be a murderer, and she wondered if that had been his way of telling them all the truth.  
,,,

Ana wasn’t sure why she felt so nervous approaching the office that had once been Bouchard’s. His name was still the one on the door and everything, though the new head of the Institute was a man named Peter Lukas. She wondered if she’d been summoned there to be fired. Ana had read somewhere once that the most layoffs occurred after new management went into effect. 

She knocked on the office door, and waited impatiently for permission to be granted for her to enter. When Ana stepped inside, she saw that everything looked exactly the same as it had the last time she’d been in there. “You wanted to see me, sir?”

Ana got the strangest feeling that the old man sitting behind the desk was a ghost that could fade away any moment now. He gave her a friendly grin, and gestured for her to sit down. “Ana Peiru, yes?” She nodded, and tried her best not to fidget. “Perfect, just the person I was looking for! You see, I was going through some of Elias’ old notes, and I happened to notice that you turned down the offer of working in the archives. Why is that?”

“Er, I’m claustrophobic. Not enough windows down there,” she said in what was probably a pretty unconvincing voice.

For some reason, Mr. Lukas looked disappointed. “Claustrophobic, huh? I see. Well, I had intended on extending you the offer again, seeing as there are multiple openings in the archives, but I assume your answer would be the same?”

Openings? There had definitely been no word of anyone being fired or quitting. So nobody was allowed down into the archives for months, and then there were mysterious job openings? “Yeah, sorry, it’s just not for me. Sir.”

She was quickly dismissed as Mr. Lukas seemed to lose interest in her, and Ana returned to her cubicle, trying to figure out what the hell had just happened. As she sat down at her desk, she looked at the picture frame that showed her standing with her wife and their two sons, and she knew that she’d made the right decision, even if she wasn’t entirely sure why.  
,,,

Mr. Sims had apparently woken up from his coma and returned to his position as Head Archivist, though Ana only knew that because Mimi Jahnston had gone to bring him some flowers that the office pooled together to buy, and had been told that he’d been discharged a few days ago. 

It was strange that someone who’d been in a coma for half a year would already be up and about, but in the end, what wasn’t strange about the world that Ana was always researching? Ana continued to do her job, and it was easy to forget about some of the more bizarre aspects of it.

Up until the day that there were two maniacs running through the building, mercilessly torturing and slaughtering every employee that they came across. That’s when Ana, Chris, and three others all ducked into the break room and immediately went about erecting a barricade. They blocked off the only door, kept the lights off, and cowered together in the far corner, doing their best to remain silent.   
When a few minutes passed without them hearing anything, Chris turned to look at Ana and speak just barely loud enough for her to hear him. “I don’t know if I’ve ever actually told you this before, but I’ve always thought of you as my best friend.” 

Ana reached out to take one of Chris’ hands. “I feel the same way. If we don’t make it out of this-”

“Both of you shut up,” one of the others snapped as quietly as possible. “If I die because of your sappy shit, I’m going to pissed.”

So they all waited in further silence. When it started to get dark out, Ana decided that she couldn’t wait around in here any longer. It had been several hours since the attack started, so surely the killers were done or gone? Nobody tried to stop her from moving aside the barricade, though she had the feeling that it would all be put back into place as soon as she was out of the room.

Ana slowly opened the door, heart pounding in her chest. She glanced in both directions, and only saw blood and carnage, but no murderers. Ana knew that she should either go to her desk to get her phone and call for help, or even better, just leave the Institute and go straight to the police. 

But for some reason she found herself heading down instead, down to the archives. She froze when she found Mr. Sims and one of his assistants standing hand in hand, with the former covered in blood and gooey bits. Ana wasn’t really sure why she did it, but she reached into her pocket to pull out her car keys, and tossed them over. Sims caught them one-handedly so he didn’t have to let go of his assistant. “What’s-”

“It’s the little red car in the third row from the left.” The two men hesitated, but then they left without another word.

The police combed through the entire building to figure out what had happened, though they seemed reluctant to look into it too much. Apparently Bouchard had escaped from prison, and nobody knew where Lukas was. There were a lot of employees who had been killed or injured by the intruders, though Officer Tonner had apparently managed to take them down in the end. No one knew where she was either, though.

When Ana was finally allowed to go home, she called her wife to come pick her up since she was definitely not in the mood for the tube. She went straight to bed and fell asleep immediately.

The next morning, Ana figured that she needed to start looking for a new job. She didn’t even know how to begin going about getting any references, or explaining what she’d been doing for what seemed like most of her life now. Luckily she had a decent amount of savings built up, and found that she enjoyed having extra time to spend with her children. 

A few weeks passed, and it was probably one of the happiest periods in Ana’s life. And then one day the sky went dark, and wind whipped all around in sharp, precise little gusts that felt more like knives than air. And when Ana tilted her head back to look up at the sky, she saw what looked like a grotesque parody of the night sky, but instead of stars there were millions of little eyes looking down on her. 

Ana just knew that it had to do with the Magnus Institute somehow or another, and she couldn’t help wondering why she’d ever taken a job there in the first place.


End file.
